Kinky Kicks, Disgraceful Dames, & Hollywood Hypocrisy! My 10-star Movie Review of 'Smarty' from 1934
My 10-star review on IMDb.com of ‘Smarty’ from 1934, starring Joan Blondell, Warren William, Edward Everett Horton, Frank McHugh, and Claire Dodd: Kinky Kicks, Disgraceful Dames, & Hollywood Hypocrisy!
Marriage and divorce lawyers take a bigger beating in this movie than Joan Blondell does, and if a single slap on the face equates to domestic violence then people don't know what domestic violence really is!
There is more violence against women in modern movies than there is in this film, yet people are now programmed to believe that it's acceptable for women to get beaten so long as it isn't by their husbands!
Please, go sit through 'True Romance' and watch Patricia Arquette take a bloody beating from James Gandolfini if you think 'Smarty' is violence against women. Even 'Goodfellas' has more marital violence, yet both AMC & IFC can't stop showing it which tells me that reckless violence against women is the status quo per the modern Hollywood code. So, why are people so shocked by a little slap in the face? Talk about hypocrisy!
'Smarty' is nothing but a kinky good time and an excellent example of not only Hollywood hypocrisy but the double standards of people in the legal industry, which makes it a delicious delight to watch!
A lawyer who marries his client after getting her a divorce when he admits to loving her while she is still married to her husband!? Now that's a scandalous slap in the face to low-down snake-in-the-grass lawyers and it's hilarious because it's truer to life than people may realize, probably because they're too busy misjudging marital situations they've never experienced themselves instead of looking at the bigger picture!
This movie has more to do with wily women chasing after men who give them attention without giving a thought to their own marriage vows than it has anything to do with domestic violence!
The great irony of life is that Joan Blondell had three husbands and three divorces in less than twenty years; she was one year into her first marriage when 'Smarty' came out, and her second marriage started a mere 15 days after her first marriage ended (and the first marriage only lasted three years!); in 'Smarty' she goes through two husbands in less than 90 minutes -- now that's irony at its finest and funniest!
Marriage is about getting through good times and bad times with a partner by your side, and a woman who isn't willing to stand by her man after he has embarrassed her only proves that she is no woman at all -- she's a little girl who needs a spanking!
Yet when a woman is slapped on her backside in private it's not nearly as shocking as when she receives it on her face with others watching, which both Hollywood and the media have succeeded at programming people to believe in these messed-up modern times!
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Joan Blondell didn't make the cut on my 'Until Death DoThey Part' list, but Warren William did with one marriage from 1923 until his death in 1948! Fill your head with heart-warming trivia by learning about the finer side of 281 actors/actresses who had only one marriage or were married twice after the death of a spouse. If marriage were that easy, every married person in Hollywood would be on this list, but they're not; hats off to those who made it!